The Feeder Bird

   Sometimes the best birds can be right outside the kitchen/patio/office windows. This doesn't happen to me because I had to take my feeders down due to an ever increasing mouse problem in my house. Consequently I need to check other feeders periodically to find feeder birds, especially finches. Ryerson Woods has a couple of nice feeder set ups, there are a couple in backyards near the path at McDonald Woods, and a couple of private residences that I know of have some elaborate feeding stations. Anyway, feeders became a major focus this fall due to the current finch invasion from the north. One finch in particular, the Evening Grosbeak, would be a lifer for me, so I was pretty excited that some had been seen in the surrounding Milwaukee and Indiana areas. None had been spotted in Illinois up to this time, however.
   On this day, as is my custom during the day, I was checking IBET posts during a free period, and saw one from fellow Lake County birder, Todd Anderson. It said that he had seen an Evening Grosbeak at his feeder off and on through the day. My heart almost stopped. Todd lives about 8 minutes from where I teach at LHS, so I quickly emailed him to see if I could come over after school. No problem, he replied. When the bell chimed 3:00, I was out the door and at Todd's house at 3:10. No bird, though. Steve Bailey, Jeff Skrentny, Craig Taylor, and Paul Sweet joined Todd and I as we staked out the feeders. 10 minutes.....20 minutes......still no bird. Finally after about 30 minutes, someone yelled out, "There it is!" "Where," I said. At that time it flew down to the feeder in front and we had great looks at a female EVENING GROSBEAK #258! It eventually flew down right next to the window, so it was real close. Very cool. I know Jeff got some great pictures:

                                                EVENING GROSBEAK (female) photos by Jeff Skrentny
  A very exciting bird to see.